Estrogen and progesterone receptors in the normal female breast (original) (raw)

We have studied estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) in normal breast by immunocytochemistry using tissue biopsies and fine needle aspirates (FNA) and, in the case of ER, by enzyme immunoassay. For ER we found a high degree of reproducibility for biopsies taken from the upper outer quadrant: FNA, r = 0.56 (P less than 0.002); tissue section immunocytochemistry, r = 0.89 (P less than 0.0001); and enzyme immunoassay, r = 0.76 (P less than 0.0001). For PR, FNA (r = 0.56, P less than 0.002) and tissue section (r = 0.97, P less than 0.0001) were also found to be reproducible techniques. Using enzyme immunoassay, we were able to measure ER accurately in normal breast tissue. In 59 samples we found a range of 0-37 fmol/mg cytosol protein (mean, 4 fmol/mg). In an age-matched group of 126 women with breast cancer, we found a significantly higher ER [range, 0-139 fmol/mg; mean, 37 fmol/mg (P less than 0.001)]. We then analyzed the ER and PR content of FNAs obtained from the u...

Sign up for access to the world's latest research.

checkGet notified about relevant papers

checkSave papers to use in your research

checkJoin the discussion with peers

checkTrack your impact